Here's how David Goyer justifies Superman killing Zod in Man of Steel

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One of the most controversial comic-book-movie moments in recent years was (without doubt) having Superman (Henry Cavill) break General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) neck in 2013’s Man of Steel. Two years later, the contentious moment is still hotly debated among fans and is still being defended by the powers-that-be.

In the epic final act of the movie taking place in the heart of Metropolis, the DC supervillain wreaked destruction and killed thousands of innocent civilians in a literal battle to the death between him and our Man of Steel. Zod was ultimately stopped in his murderous tracks when our hero killed his fellow Kryptonian. To be fair, Supes was left with no choice after Zod told him he would NEVER STOP KILLING.

This jaw-dropping moment riled up fans of the beloved superhero so much so that it's still debated to this day in many a fan forum. As for movie writer David S. Goyer, he's still spending quality time defending the bold move. In a podcast interview with Nerdist (via Comic Book Movie), Goyer said:

"The way I work, the way Chris [Nolan] works, is you do what’s right for the story. That exists entirely separately from what fans should or shouldn’t think of that character. You have to do what’s right for the story. In that instance, this was a Superman who had only been Superman for like, a week. He wasn’t Superman as we think of him in the DC Comics...or even in a world that conceived of Superman existing. He’d only flown for the first time a few days before that. He’d never fought anyone that had super powers before. And so he’s going up against a guy who’s not only super-powered, but has been training since birth to use those super powers, who exists as a superhuman killing machine, who has stated, ‘I will never stop until I destroy all of humanity.’ If you take Superman out of it, what’s the right way to tell that story? I think the right way to tell that story is if you take this powered alien who says, ‘You can have your race back, but you have to kill your adopted race,’ the moral, horrible situation to be in is to actually be forced to kill, not wanting to, the only other person from your race. Take Superman aside, I think that’s the right way to tell that story."

What do you think of Goyer’s explanation? Does it make perfectly good sense to you? Do you guys think this will be enough to finally put an end to this controversy?